The Video Confessional Booth Goes Live
July 2, 2008
We made a last grand push to finish the booth in advance of the July 4 holiday. We also hoped that having the booth publicly accessible for a couple of weeks we make last-minute adjustments before our office summer picnic. Also, we knew that Stan Lee was visiting our office on July 2, and ooh, if we could only get a confession from him! To do this, we worked the whole weekend before, and by Sunday afternoon everything looked ready! It was time to find a tester. Lucky for us we found Angela, our willing test subject. We didn't tell her anything, we just led her to the booth. I hoped it would work. I particularly hoped she would wonder about the pedal. Here's her confession:
All giggles. I want you to know: when she said, "What's this little pedal down here?" I grabbed Benji in excitement and listened as she did it. This first test was an unqualified success
Several hours and several tweaks later, we moved the booth to its home by the ping pong table, ran some additional tests, left it and went home.
The next morning I sent this email through the Cult of Tom alias: (So you know, a Smoogler is the term for a Santa Monica Googler.)
Dear Smooglers,
The Cult of Tom is proud to unveil the Cult of Tom Video Confessional Booth. Have you done something which you shouldn't have? Have you said something that you oughtn't have? Do you know something you're just itching to tell your closest colleagues? Do you just want to hide from Tobias??
Don't worry, The Cult of Tom is here to help. Here's how:
- Enter the Cult of Tom Video Confessional Booth, currently located by the ping pong table at SMO-ARI-2.
- Follow the instructions on the screen.
- Confess!
- After a short while, go to [internal url] to see your confession (as well as all other confessions.)
Here are some of the things that have already been said about The Cult of Tom Video Confessional Booth:
"The Cult of Tom changed my life. Now that I am free from my burdens I can go out and live the life I've always wanted." - John Brady
"I would love to use the Cult of Tom Video Confessional Booth, but it's not really made for someone with paws." - Maggie Shea
"I thought they were building a chuppah for my son, Sean. This is even better." -- Lisa Carter
"I wanted to confess to Tom, but my handlers forced me to speak in Catalina" - Stan Lee
"I... what ... that is ... I can't believe they finally did it." - Tom
The Cult of Tom loves [internal url]. The Cult of Tom loves Tom. The Cult of Tom loves you.
Sadly, although Stan Lee was extraordinarily gracious, kind and funny, none of us had the nerve ask him to make a confession. But we do have two confessions here for your viewing pleasure:
For this one you may want to turn your speakers down.